


Some folks drive the bears out of the wilderness

by sageness



Category: due South
Genre: Canon - TV, Community: ds_flashfiction, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-19
Updated: 2007-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-06 17:24:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageness/pseuds/sageness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teeth dug into Ray's pants leg just above his ankle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some folks drive the bears out of the wilderness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for due South flashfiction's Quadruped challenge. Special thanks to eledhwenlin for making me write and to china_shop for the beta! Title from Lyle Lovett's "Bears".

 

  
Teeth dug into Ray's pants leg just above his ankle. He felt a sharp tooth pushing at the padded edge of the top of his boot. Another pair, top and bottom, were pressing at the denim of his jeans. He laughed and shook his leg playfully. The little white bear let go, rolled over on her back, and attacked his foot head-on.

"Yeah, there you go, use those paws!" he said, as the infant bear cub clutched his boot in her hands and pulled.

The door to the outdoor enclosure opened and Fraser came out, followed by the Wildlife Conservation officer, Susan-something, but not Dief. Dief had to stay in the inner office, and it had taken Fraser a good three minutes of explaining and Ray's additional promise of a bear-claw pastry later to get him to stop with the bear-scaring barks of complaint.

Meanwhile, the cub had discovered Ray's other shoe and his right pants leg, which he'd spilled coffee on that morning. The little bear was now focused on licking all the remaining coffee, sugar, and chocolate off the fabric that she could.

"Uh, can bears eat chocolate?" he called over to Susan. "It was in my coffee that I spilled."

Laughing, Susan came over, approaching from the side so as not to startle the bear. "It'll be fine. A little treat for her."

Ray bent down to one knee in the snow and ran his hands through the ruff between the bear cub's ears. At the movement of his leg, she clamped her jaws around his shin. "Yep, you sure are a strong little bear."

He looked up to see Fraser smiling at him. "You seem to have made a friend."

"It's almost too bad they grow up," Susan said.

Ray laughed, petting the bear cub again. She let go of his shin and turned her head to lick his palm. Ray had taken his gloves off when they first went in the office and had forgotten to put them back on, and the bear's tongue was steaming hot and wet in the freezing air. "That is so gross. Wow, do you have bad breath!"

"Seal meat and fresh fish, yes?" Fraser asked Susan.

"That's right. We're hoping to return her to the wild in about a year and a half."

Ray blinked. "So soon?"

Susan laughed. "She'll weigh about 225 kilos."

"That's roughly five hundred pounds," Fraser put in, adjusting his hat.

Ray took a moment to envision the bear as big as him and Fraser and Susan all put together. Then he scratched her head again with his wet hand. " 'Kay, you just remember, little bear, one day when you're all big and out in the wild, you don't eat me. Or anybody else. Got it?"

The cub nibbled gently on the heel of his hand, as if in reply. Inside the building, Dief began to howl.

"I daresay that's our cue to leave, I'm afraid." Fraser stuck out his gloved hand for Susan to shake, thanking her for her time, and Ray gave the little bear one last stroke goodbye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
